Replies to Welcome E-mail

>>> "francis" <fcharb@comcast.net> 8/17/2006 3:36 PM >>>
I am in complete agreement with David that we should waive the registration fee for all board members and chief administrators of public charter schools at our forthcoming convention.

Francis Charbonnier

>>> Beth Gerot <gerot_b@4j.lane.edu> 8/17/2006 4:45 PM >>>
Carole,

Is the fee also waived for new public school chief administrators?

Beth

Beth,

That is the intent - that the fee would be waived for the board member as well as the chief administrator of the charter school.

Carole

>>> "Frederick Marble" <fimarb@hotmail.com> 8/17/2006 4:48 PM >>>
I think that it would be in the best interest of all for us to waive the 
convention fee for the initial Charter School invitation. Future years to 
are another issue. We are likely to increase the overall attendance with 
the addition of the Charter Schools. I can't think of better way to 
encourage the maximum attendance of this group for their first year of 
eligibility.

Fred Marble

>>> "Paul  Zastrow" <pzastrow@gorge.net> 8/17/2006 6:51 PM >>>
I do not have a problem with waiving fees for any public school board member 
or CEO, for a first timer. But - I do not truly get a vote!

Z (Paul Zastrow)

>>> "David Beeson" <beeson_david@silverfalls.k12.or.us> 8/18/2006 8:49 AM >>>

Carole. Good morning! Please record my vote as "YES" to waive the registration fee for the 2006 convention for Public Charter School Board members and Chief Administrators. Thanks! Best regards.

David Beeson.

>>> <PROP59@aol.com> 8/18/2006 9:33 AM >>>

8-18-06

Hello all,
I have a question.
We approved waiving the fee for new board members (Public). We didn't approve waiving the fee for new Superintendents/Administrators (Public) who wish to attend and we never have to my knowledge. I don't have an issue with waiving the fee for Charter School Board members, but I don't believe we should include chief administrators.
Just my thoughts.

Peggy Penland

>>> "Scott B. Pillar" <scott@steelheadhomes.com> 8/18/2006 10:01 AM >>>

I vote "yes" on waving fees for Board Members and CEO's. Frankly, I am less excited about waiving the fee for the CEO's but I think that the good that would come from an increased number of CEO's being there outweighs the potential revenue gain.

Scott B. Pillar

>>> "Annette Mattson" <Annette.Mattson@pgn.com> 8/18/2006 10:10 AM >>>
I agree with Peggy's comments regarding not waiving the fee for
administrators. 
I support waiving the fee for charter board members this year as a
"welcome" and to encourage them to discover tha value of the OSBA
conference. 

Annette 

>>> "Kevin McCann" <KMcCann@osba.org> 8/18/2006 10:23 AM >>>
Peggy raises a very good question that points out the many decisions we will all need to make as we implement the charter school associate member decision the board made. The staff recommendation to offer waived convention fees to charter school chief administrators was basically a marketing decision. Since the charter school endeavor is a new program for which we want to strongly encourage participation by charter schools, waiving convention fees this year would encourage participation. Often the superintendent acts as a gatekeeper to OSBA for his/her board members. We thought that this one-time waiver would be an incentive. 

I hope that helps clarify as you make your decision.

Kevin

>>> <PROP59@aol.com> 8/18/2006 10:27 AM >>>

8-18-06

Kevin,
Thank you for the insight into the recommendation.
It would hold true for public administrators as well.
I would still only support the waiver for Charter Board members, not chief administrators. 

Peggy Penland

>>> "Kris Howatt" <removed> 8/18/2006 10:43 AM >>>

I agree that we should waive the fees for charter board members this year. I do not think we should waive it for any administrators or other paid staff. 

Kris Howatt

>>> "Carole McCann" <CMcCann@osba.org> 8/18/2006 10:43 AM >>>
I vote no for two reasons:

1. The "motion" includes charter school staff and I don't think it should. I do support the waiving of the registration fee for public charter school board members for first time convention attendees.

2. This virtual meeting format does not allow for adequate discussion of the issue.

Submitted via telephone dictation by Craig Prewitt, OSBA Vice President

>>> "Annette Mattson" <Annette.Mattson@pgn.com> 8/18/2006 11:06 AM >>>
I concur with Kris. 

I am almost out of blackberry range as I head out of town for a long
family weekend. I will be returning Monday afternoon. 

Annette 

>>> <PROP59@aol.com> 8/18/2006 11:09 AM >>>

8-18-06

I too vote no on this issue. I offer another motion though, I move that we waive the registration fee for Charter Board Members only.


Peggy Penland

>>> Beth Gerot <gerot_b@4j.lane.edu> 8/18/2006 11:24 AM >>>
Carol,

My question was will OSBA be waiving the fee for new superintendents of our
public schools as well as chief administrators of charter schools?

Thanks!
Beth

>>> Carole McCann 8/18/2006 12:47 PM >>>
Beth,

No, it was not the intent to waive the fee for new public school superintendents.

Carole

>>> Harry Ainsworth <hainsworth03@yahoo.com> 8/18/2006 6:06 PM >>>
I would support waiving the fees once for both board members and adminstrators. If we are attempting to convince these Boards to participate and rely upon OSBA we should make an introduction to our organization as enticing as possible. In the future I would support extending to charter school board members the same discounts for new members as we do for elected new members. I also think we might want to consider waiving fees for both board members and administrators for any new charter school which is chartered later.

I'm not sure what the benefit to OSBA is in not extending the waiver to administrators on a one time basis.

Harry Ainsworth

Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 8:19 AM
Subject: IMPORTANT MESSAGE / Charter School Convention Fees Waiver/ Virtual Meeting Vote


Subject: Charter School Convention Fees Waiver/ Virtual Meeting Vote


Board Colleagues. Good morning ! I just wanted to take a few moments to comment again on the rationale behind the staff recommendation, and my support for it, to waive convention fees for Charter School board members and for chief administrators of Charter Schools. During the work of the Charter School Committee, a huge part of our discussion at almost every turn was about the advantages - for Oregon boys and girls, families, communities - of our engagement of Charter Schools and our help at a variety of levels in helping them to succeed. Coupled with our interest in the success of Charter Schools, was a belief that our engagement - sort of " bringing them into our fold " - would be of enormous value to the entire education community in terms of mitigating the very negative relationships that exist in many areas between Charter School proponents and the traditional public education community. We also discussed, as a part of our interest in the success of Charter Schools, their often much more difficult financial situations and how OSBA's services and programs might help with that issue. In Oregon, Charter Schools are creatures of the public system, largely chartered by local districts. They are funded by public dollars - serving public school children. Like elected public school board members, unelected Charter School board members are lay persons who come to service from all walks of life, all levels of education and experience. With respect to the issue of chief administrators, public school administrators are almost exclusively products of training and experience in service to public education and traditional public schools. This is often not the case with Charter School administrators, and for this reason - our effort to " bring them into the fold " - I support this one time waiver of fees for administrators of Charter Schools as well. It is a mistaken notion, in my opinion at least, to assert that both public school administrators and their Charter School counterparts are the same - and should thus be treated the same in the issue of convention fees, in the face of this important effort designed to engage Charter Schools. The cost to OSBA to waive registration fees for Charter School administrators is very, very small, especially in view of the benefits we hope to derive. No precedent that would apply to regular public school administrators will be set. I regard this waiver as a part of our investment in the engagement of Charter Schools. All Charter School affiliates attending convention would still incur travel, lodging, and meals costs. For these reasons I have voted " YES " to the request. We'll visit more in the future about refinements to the virtual board meeting process. Best regards to all. 

David Beeson.

>>> Dean Livelybrooks <dlivelyb@uoregon.edu> 8/19/2006 9:11 AM >>>
Carole,
I vote NO.

Dean Livelybrooks 

>>> "Carolyn Ortman" <ortmanf1@gte.net> 8/19/2006 3:16 PM >>>
Carole;
While I cannot vote, I will let you know that I have been following the
conversation, such as it is. I would caution against having the school
board association waive fees for a paid employee. It would seem that
COSA should be taking this up with administrators belonging to their
organization and getting the kind of training and professional
development that is appropriate for them. When an administrator comes
to OSBA, they get some of the same information, but our information is
geared to board members-not administrators. It would seem that it is
not appropriate for OSBA funds to be used for paid employees.

Carolyn Ortman

>>> "francis" <fcharb@comcast.net> 8/19/2006 4:17 PM >>>
Though I realized that public charter school chief administrators had been added to school board members for (one time?) exemption of the registration fee, I immediately voted yes on the original motion, for reasons which have since been well articulated by Kevin and now in more detail by David. I am in complete agreement with David, reaffirm my yes vote on the original motion and hope that the thoughtful board members and officers who initially voted no will reconsider their position.

Best regards, Francis C.

>>> "Wally Hazen" <wallyhazen@charter.net> 8/20/2006 11:07 AM >>>
I vote no on this issue. 
Our policy now is to allow new Board members only free registration. If we feel in the future we should offer this to all new board members and new administrators, we can have this discussion. 

Wally Hazen 

>>> "Krina Lemons" <lemons61@comcast.net> 8/20/2006 7:52 AM >>>
I vote waiving fee for school board members, not staff or administrators. 
I also concur that email voting does not allow adequate conversation and insight

Krina Lemons
Salem-Keizer

>>> Harry Ainsworth <hainsworth03@yahoo.com> 8/20/2006 5:47 PM >>>
I am voting for the motion to waive registration fees for both school board members and administrators.

If we are trying to encourage participation in OSBA by charter school staff and boards, there is no rational distinction between waiving fees for board members but not for adminstrators. As we all know from our own districts, often the professional staff has a profound affect on the decision making process and agency culture. I do not believe it is in the best interest of OSBA to forego an opportunity to encourage adminstrators of charter schools to gain an introduction to our organization. 

The entire rationale for including charter schools was to offer support to schools which are educating Oregon students with public money. The idea was that this would benefit both the students and the boards and staffs of the charter schools. It is anticipated that this one time waiver would have minimal financial impact on OSBA. I urge the OSBA board to encourage participation by the full charter school community.

Harry

>>> "Idalia Stam" <istam@fmtc.com> 8/21/2006 8:25 AM >>>
Sorry for my late vote, but I have been on vacation. 
I would agree with Kris that we should waive the fees for the Charter Board members this year, but not the administrators or other staff.

Idalia Stam 

>>> Beth Gerot <gerot_b@4j.lane.edu> 8/21/2006 9:36 AM >>>
Carol,

I was gone for a long weekend and am just getting to this. I support
paying for Public Charter School Board members, but not for their chief
administrators.

David, David, David

I respect your leadership and what trying to be accomplished here BUT, Who is our service population. (local school boards) That's why we were created I think. 

What if we applied this theory to our personal lives and raising our kids. should we pay for the spouses family members for financial obligations? In this instance we are in the long run shooting ourselves in the foot.

Trying to develop long term financial stability within our organization we first have to set the standards we operate by. I believe that if we are in the business of offering services to our membership we don't offer rebates of under cut our program and service providers with a waiver of financial contributions.

We should ask the question of why are our constituents not buying our services and being involved in our product line. Maybe we are selling the wrong product and we should assess what it is we provide and what are the delivery standards that need to be met. 

We have a quality product line in the OSBA Operations and the services that we provide have a very high standard, as has been shown to us by our operations staff. 

We need to FOCUS on what it is we are and understand that we can never satisfy all of the people all of the time. 

My MICKEY MOUSE TRAINING this past week, in Orland, Florida with the Disney Institute, I have to show a return of investment in the training opportunity that was provided to me. While not all will be in agreement with my vote.

My vote is for not waive the school administrators and am hesitant for the charter school, as they represent a part of the student body that use to be our students (my personal feeling is that the system has failed these students and we are now being punished, by having to pay for their education with our allocation of basic school funding) 

My vote is for charter school, waiver of first time board members only. Thanks Jeff 

>>> "David Krumbein" <DKRUMBEIN@bluecc.edu> 8/21/2006 3:34 PM >>>
I vote for paying for the Board Members, but not the Administrators. The
fee is not great enough that they can't find money to attend